News and Information from Pickerington Schools

News

PLSD Student Research Team Selected to Send Algae Experiment Into Space

The winning research team of Isaac Hoshor (left) and Trevor Blankenship (right) presented details of its project to Sycamore Creek Elementary students on Feb. 10.

Two Pickerington High School Central seniors now have a truly out-of-this-world achievement to add to their resumes. Trevor Blankenship and Isaac Hoshor’s research proposal, named “Algae: The Fuel Source of Space,” was selected by a panel of scientists for the real microgravity experiment to be sent on a mission to the International Space Station! Selected by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program’s Mission 16 project, Blankenship and Hoshor’s proposal beat out 73 other Pickerington Local School District (PLSD) Earth and Space Science Education high school teams for the honor. Read the rest of the article online: www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/mission-16-project/.

Class Full of Authors Launches “Bedtime Stories” Series

Pickerington Schools is excited to introduce the “Bedtime Stories” video series, which will feature different books read by PLSD students and staff. Find out why the first book featured is the perfect way to kick off the new series on the PLSD Communications YouTube channel.

PLSD Overcrowding Concerns Grow with Growing Population

Boundary Capacity

2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 2026-27 2027-28 2028-29 2029-30 Trend Fairfield ES 624 490 482 490 518 537 560 575 566 559 561 557 Heritage ES 468 344 374 386 387 378 391 388 394 397 398 395 Pickerington ES 598 426 436 451 448 463 468 481 503 500 502 499 Sycamore Creek ES 806 721 697 770 787 825 833 856 862 856 859 854

Toll Gate ES 806 734 721 815 861 888 923 935 915 909 912 906 Tussing ES 650 618 604 634 632 640 667 667 666 658 661 656 Violet ES 650 473 513 555 588 612 628 655 655 651 654 650 Diley MS 650 592 557 567 612 611 636 659 644 695 723 723 Harmon MS 650 515 504 490 502 510 511 524 580 623 610 604 Toll Gate MS 702 612 591 638 664 710 743 763 839 879 852 850 Lakeview JHS 952 843 817 822 844 857 883 925 950 973 1,075 1,143 Ridgeview JHS 1,008 923 947 933 905 915 974 989 1,026 1,057 1,077 1,158 Central HS 1,590 1,802 1,779 1,813 1,886 1,890 1,867 1,875 1,910 1,937 2,042 2,090 North HS 1,920 1,652 1,533 1,620 1,654 1,687 1,715 1,715 1,766 1,823 1,879 1,946 VLA 105 117 121 124 126 130 133 134 137

Total 12,074 10,745 10,555 11,089 11,404 11,643 11,923 12,133 12,405 12,650 12,938 13,168

Legend Exceeds Capacity Greater than 90% of Capacity Greater than 85% of Capacity

JVS At JVS PAS In home buildings Preschool In ES of attendance

Based on January 2022 projections from the consulting firm Cooperative Strategies, the PLSD is continuing to grow and the space needed to educate our students is rapidly dwindling.

Ryan Jenkins, Treasurer/CFO for the District, shared a presentation and discussion with PLSD’s Board of Education at its Jan. 10 meeting. The presentation highlighted the capacities at each of the district’s 14 school buildings, along with an analysis of the anticipated enrollment growth in each building by the end of the 2029-2030 school year.

The reports, which are available at https://www.pick erington.k12.oh.us/news/plsd-enrollment/, analyzed the projected enrollments in three ways: • Based on the students attending that school during the 2021-2022 school year • Based on the students living within that school’s boundaries during the 2021-2022 school year; and • Using a student growth potential model that develops all developable land within the District’s boundaries

Based on the analysis, the District has created a grid that shows just how full our buildings are getting. There are currently two buildings that are beyond programming capacity (Toll Gate Elementary and Pickerington High School Central) along with four more buildings (Ridgeview Junior High, Toll Gate Middle School, Sycamore Creek Elementary and Tussing Elementary) that are more than 90 percent full.

By the 2025-2026 school year, those numbers increase to seven buildings above programming capacity (Pickerington High School Central, Diley Middle School, Toll Gate Middle School, Toll Gate Elementary, Tussing Elementary, Sycamore Creek Elementary and Violet Elementary) with another three buildings (Lakeview and Ridgeview Junior Highs and Fairfield Elementary) more than 90 percent full.

During the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Chris Briggs said, “If you look at the continued (housing) development that is going on in our District, these numbers are very real. These numbers are at a point where we are impacting programming.”

Board Member Cathy Olshefski also stated, “It’s important for our community to understand that there is a three-year lag between the passage of a bond issue and a building opening. Looking at the 2021-2022 school year, we already have buildings that are full … so even if a bond issue passes (in 2022), it won’t be until the 2024-2025 school year (that a new building opens), which is already an even fuller school year.”

Noting that the District had proposed previous bond issues to the community within the last couple of years, Board President Vanessa Niekamp and Olshefski asked if the District was considering changes to the facility plan moving forward. Briggs said the District is taking a hard look at its facilities plans to come up with the right options for meeting its needs. While these plans are evolving, the District has identified and is vetting some short-term options to try to ease current and anticipated overcrowding.